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Your move, Ben - make it count

By Carmine Frongillo, cfrongillo@lowellsun.com

Updated:
11/26/2012 10:58:34 AM EST

By now, Ben Cherington has compiled his Christmas wish list of free agents and you have to believe the Red Sox GM didn't rise at 4 a.m. on Friday in hopes of beating his peers for the best day-after Thanksgiving deals.

Cherington has more than enough cash available to purchase the big-ticket items at the front of baseball's free-agent display case this holiday season.

There are plenty of holes that need to be filled as the Red Sox try to rise from the ashes of the meltdown that was a dreadful 2012 campaign. Cherington has had a nice start to his rebuilding process, resigning DH David Ortiz and signing free agent outfielder Jonny Gomes, a solid "clubhouse guy" who batted .262 with 18 homers for Oakland this summer.

These moves certainly won't catapult the Red Sox to the top of the AL East standings, but they are very solid starting points from which Cherington is sure to build on.

But I don't believe Cherington has any intention of trying for a quick-fix approach to what ails the Red Sox. The Miami Marlins went that route last winter and it failed miserably.

Pennants are hard to buy. Cherington is smart enough to realize this. The moves Cherington makes this off-season will make the Red Sox much more competitive in 2013 and, hopefully, a genuine playoff contender in 2014

If the Sox make a quicker U-turn in the standings than expected, great. But there is a sizable gap between Boston and the best teams in the American League at the moment.

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If nothing else, the Red Sox proved last summer baseball is first and foremost an arms race and you can't have enough quality pitching. So I'm hoping Cherington makes it a point to bolster the pitching staff.

Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz and Felix Doubront are good starting points in the rotation. Beyond that the Red Sox are probably stuck with John Lackey as the fourth starter.

Anibal Sanchez, 28, who pitched extremely well for the Detroit Tigers in the postseason, is reportedly among the free-agent starting pitchers the Red Sox covet. He would be a nice addition and I hope Cherington can seal the deal on a contract.

While Cherington's at it, I'd certainly like him at the very least to make a serious pitch (no pun intended) to Zack Greinke and gauge his level of interest in joining the Red Sox. I believe Greinke, who has social anxiety disorder (SAD), is the best free-agent starting pitcher on the market. If you add Sanchez and Greinke to the rotation, the Sox starting pitchers 1-through-5 would be good enough to keep the team in contention for the long haul.

As for free-agent hitters, outfielder Josh Hamilton is out there, but giving him a long-term deal at megabucks is risky, considering his struggles with drugs and alcohol. I've always been intrigued by outfielder B.J. Upton, who would look good hitting in the heart of the Red Sox order. Upton, who should come at a much cheaper price than Hamilton, has above average speed, won't hurt you in the field and produced some solid power numbers last season in Tampa, smacking 28 homers while driving in 78 runs.

Before you say this would be a redo of signing outfielder Carl Crawford, the former Tampa Bay star whose playing days in Boston didn't go according to plan, you have to remember Upton is better suited to playing in Fenway Park. Think Cody Ross with a lot more athletic ability.

Upton, I believe, could potentially be a 30-homer, 30-steal, 90-RBI, 100-runs player . Even if he had stayed healthy, Crawford would never would have hit 30 homers and knocked in 100 runs playing half his games in Fenway.

You have to believe Upton would do some serious damage if he had a healthy Jacoby Ellsbury hitting in front of him and a healthy Ortiz hitting behind him. Add Will Middlebrooks into the mix and that would be a lineup with some pop.

Hey, it's the holidays and Red Sox fans are eager for Cherington to go on a major shopping spree and buy up a bundle of talent that stokes the flames of the local hot stove talk from now until the beginning of spring training.

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